Animal hoarding. Addiction. Lying. Imprisonment.

NEWS AND VIEWS - OREGON, USA: Cat hoarding is not that uncommon. We need to be both sympathetic to cat hoarders and more so to the animals that they hoard and therefore there comes a time when the cat hoarder needs to be punished as well as provided with treatment if they are the victims of a genuine addiction as is the case with this woman.

Note: the picture below depicts a fictional character and not the woman featured in this story. This image was created by a computer. Good isn't it? Although it is somewhat sanitised. True cat and dog hoarders live in incredibly filthy places.

The story concerns a woman in Portland, USA. Her name is Samantha Miller. She has a long history of repeated offending and being somewhat let off by judges until this last case when she was imprisoned for two years because the criminal court system grew tired of her and the judge in this case saw through her lies.

The history of this woman's addiction to rescuing and caring for cats and dogs began formally in terms of first coming to the attention of the state authorities about five years ago. That's when the State Department Of Justice shut down their dog rescue and barred them from opening any further non-profit rescue operations as part of a 2019 agreement (settlement). At that time there rescue centre was called Scappoose.

Miller and her partner Torrance Head apparently then set up another non-profit business in which they promised to save dogs from high-kill California shelters. That rescue operation was also raided in 2020 by animal control officers who seized 122 cats and dogs living in filthy kennels. This couple again were abusing cats and dogs under cover of a rescue operation.

Apparently last August, Miller was also in breach of parole conditions for changing her address without permission and generally being untruthful. The judge let her off with a warning.

Her partner, Torrance Head, pleaded guilty in 2023 of doctoring phony certificates for rabies vaccinations.

Moving forward, Miller then set up another operation called Woofin Palooza which resulted in Miller receiving a 270-count indictment against her with respect to the mistreatment of animals. She then entered into another settlement agreement in which he promised to stay away from cat abd dog rescue which kept her out of jail.

Moving forward again, a parole officer for Samantha Miller made a surprise visit to her home in Tillamook County in March to ensure that she was sticking to her agreement. They found seven dogs locked in a trailer. And cat litter boxes, cat toys and cat food in her home. She had broken her agreement.

This led to a trial in which she was imprisoned for two years as mentioned. The state prosecutor said that she had "never taken full responsibility for the harm that she inflicted on animals and humans".

You can see that here is a thread running through this story which is Samantha Miller and Torrance Head's untruthfulness and Miller's addiction to rescuing cats and dogs. And she simply doesn't want to abide by the law or her agreement to stay away from animal rescue on the basis that she simply can't cope with it.

That's why I say this is a good example of how cat and dog hoarding can become an addiction and it also hints I would argue with mental health issues in cat hoarders. 

It's a known fact that, in general, cat hoarders are borderline mentally ill for the major reason that they simply fail to see that what they are doing is not cat and dog rescue but cat and dog abuse. 

They hoard the animals under the guise of rescuing them because they are hoarders generally and in being hoarders and living chaotic lives they neglect the animals' welfare which is animal abuse. That's why this woman ended up in jail.

They invariably defend themselves by lying all the time about their activities.

And I would strongly suggest that when she is released from jail she will go back to doing the same thing again.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Love completely healed this shy, 18-year-old, polydactyl, deaf, tortoiseshell, hoarded cat

What can you say except love conquers all. People ask what should a new comer to cat caretaking do when they adopt a cat? Love her completely and all the knowledge you need will flow from that starting point because you'll be eager to learn and communicate with your cat. With cats love is always reciprocated. The more the better.

The caregiver in the video had lots of experience and she poured it out all over her unadoptable shelter cat. Poly the cat had all the wrong attributes for being adopted at a shelter. Sometimes you'll meet people who go against the grain and adopt the least popular cat at a shelter.

Every time it works out great. It is thanks to the person. They have a brilliant attitude. They are special people. Like Poly in the video the cats adore these adopters. Listen to Poly purr. It is intense. The purr speaks volumes about the closeness of the relationship. 

If only all human-to-cat relationships were like this. There'd be not feral cats, no 'bad cat behaviour', no cats abandoned to shelters or besides the road. Just great relationships all the way to the end of the cat's life.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Britain's worst hoarder with bodies of up to four mummified cats on shelves wrapped in newspaper

NEWS AND COMMENT: This is certainly one of Britain's worst hoarding cases but I would doubt that it is the worst because there are some truly horrendous examples of hoarding. And the hoarding of inanimate objects spills over to the hoarding of animate objects such as domestic cats which is why you find both junk and the bodies of cats in a home occupied by a hoarder.

RELATED: Gabapentin substantially improves adoption rate of shelter cats rescued from a hoarding environment.

Image: Blanchards/Triangle News.

I just written an article about cat hoarding and the mental illness behind it which may interest people and if so you can click on this link. It's quite an in depth article. We have to be compassionate about cat hoarders although through their hoarding they often harm cats and sometimes kill them through neglect so they need to be criticised as well as treated for their mental illness.

In this case a 70-year-old man lived in a property in Lancashire, UK, alone. The home was so stuffed full of junk that the people commissioned to clean it had to enter the upstairs through a ladder set against an upstairs window. There was no way in to that part of the house as I understand it.

It is reported that there were at least four mummified, pet cats wrapped in newspaper placed on shelves in the property.

The hoarding got so bad that he couldn't get rid of the cats he had killed through neglect or perhaps they died of old age, we don't know. It's likely that this man neglected the cats to the point where they were harmed and possibly died unnecessarily.

One of the great problems with hoarders - and I'm including cat hoarding here - is they don't look at things objectively. They don't have the financial means necessary to take a cat to a veterinarian, and they are sometimes unaware of the illnesses suffered by cats. They are blinkered because of their mental health problems.

It took a team of cleaners 45 hours to make some headway in cleaning the property.

In my view, the cause of hoarding of all kinds is anxiety and at worst fear. Hoarding reassures the anxious person. I've argued that everyone has 'the hoarding gene' as I've put it but almost everyone manages to control it. Most people like to possess objects. They enjoy buying objects. They don't like to get rid of them. Over the years they acquire objects and the home becomes fuller.

Occasionally we read about high profile celebrities having a mass clear out of high quality, expensive possessions. These people are - in an elegant and high profile way - hoarders of expensive possessions. Normally hoarding relates to inanimate possessions but as mentioned it can spill over to animals and interestingly we never hear about dog hoarding but cats are a prime target for hoarding perhaps because they are perceived as being independent and able to cope by themselves which they can't by the way.

And there is historically a looser connection between domestic cats and owners. Put it this way, it is easier to park a cat in a corner of a home and forget about them as a cat hoarder might do but much harder to do the same with a dog. A dog is more in your face.

And there are lots of cats that need rescuing. There are lots of stray cats, feral cats and unwanted cats from people who allow their cats to breed. We have to put some blame on the people who create unwanted cats which facilitates the activities of a cat hoarder.

RELATED: Cat hoarding – full discussion.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Weird dog picture signals horror cat treatment

I am not going to talk about this a lot because it is too distressing. But in the photograph just below this paragraph you see a very strange, indeed weird, situation. You see lots of dogs clambering around the driver's and passenger's seat in a van parked in Hampton, Oakland, New Jersey, USA. It is just not the kind of picture you see, ever. It caught my eye and as expected it reveals a horror story behind it.

Dogs inside van packed full of dead and sick cats and dogs. Image: Fox News.

Looking at the picture you can see that the unamed woman who owns these cats and dogs was living on a shoestring. They've repaired the dashboard with duct tape. It looks very grimy. The dogs look very sad and confused.

We are told that inside the vehicle there were 38 dogs and eight cats. Rescuers made the discovery last Saturday, April 8. The vehicle had been parked for two days at least. There were dogs running around the parking lot. A foul odour emanated from the vehicle unsurprisingly.

The dogs were soaked in urine and faeces. The vehicle was packed with animals.The cats and dogs inside the truck were terrified and huddled in all corners. 

Rescuers pulled them from the vehicle one by one. There were dead animals inside the vehicle which was soaked in urine, faeces and where there were animal remains. It is truly a ghastly, horrible and a horror story. It is the worst kind of animal abuse and animal hoarding.

The hoarding woman had decided to put all her animals in the van because her home in Virginia had been damaged in a fire. This had apparently forced her to live in the van with her large entourage of animals. She'd driven from Virginia to NJ.

It is such a relief, though, that they've been rescued and can start living normal lives with people who care. Ironically, then, that the person who did this thought that she was caring for them when she achieved quite the opposite. It is quite sad really. I feel for her despite the abuse she delivered to her animals. Often hoarders are borderline mentally ill.

Different rescue organisations were involved in this big job. It was Hampton animal control which were the first responders. They stayed into the late hours to rescue the animals and ensure that they had safe placements.

The identity of the driver has not been released. The information comes from Fox News Digital. They say that they have reached out to local police to seek more details.

Are cat hoarders criminals?

You might be forgiven for believing that all cat hoarders are criminals because cat hoarding is almost invariably cruel to cats - a violation of animal welfare laws. That is the impression one gets. But it is not necessarily the right one. Although it is fair to say that perhaps 90% of genuine cat hoarders will be neglectful of their cats and through this neglect be cruel to them causing great harm and often including death.

Many cats in truck looking at camera. There were 43 cats inside this U-Haul truck. Image in the public domain.

The Cat House on the Kings

But some cat hoarders do such a good job in looking after their cats that they can only be praised. Perhaps the most famous person on the planet looking after the largest number of cats is Lynea Lattanzio who is the founder and I guess manager of America's largest cat rescue based in California called The Cat House on the Kings. 

The last time I checked, they had about a thousand cats in their care. I dread to think what their veterinary and food bill is monthly. She is not a cat hoarder in the conventional sense but clearly, she can't say no to a rescue cat. And that is a quality that cat hoarders have.

But all the cats are very carefully cared for and she is the most admirable woman and a champion of cat rescue.

Over the years they have saved over 30,000 cats and even more than 7000 dogs.

Individual circumstances - case by case basis

Whether a cat hoarder is a criminal or not depends upon the individual circumstances and whether they cause harm to their cats due to a failure to provide a proper environment for them and to provide proper care. Are they breaking the relevant animal welfare laws under which they operate? 

UK - RSPCA - Animal Welfare Act 2006

Interestingly, I recently did a bit of work on this. I asked the question, "how bad does it have to get for the RSPCA in the UK to come out and investigate?"

The question was in relation to multi-cat homes. How bad does the home have to be in terms of gross smells and the place becoming uninhabitable before the RSPCA take action? And I mentioned a neighbour of mine who has 10 cats and there are horrible smells coming out of her home. Her home is just about habitable (but not to some) but it is pretty cruel on the cats in my view. They are all full-time indoor cats breathing ammonia daily.

I described the situation to the RSPCA and they told me that it was not breaking the law under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 in the UK. That gives you a guideline as to the point at which a cat hoarder becomes a criminal or simply becomes the owner of a multi-cat environment.

Mental health

If they do break the animal welfare laws of the state (in America) in which they operate then the question that has to be asked next is, "what is their mental state?"

Often, it is arguably inappropriate to criminalise a person with mental health problems. And genuine cat hoarders often have mental health problems. 

They often genuinely believe that they are doing some good by rescuing cats and they simply are unable to truly observe what they're doing objectively. 

So rather than punish them the argument is that they should be treated but at the same time they should be banned from looking after animals until assessed as being competent to do so.

Extraordinary but sad picture of 47 cats inside a car

NEWS AND COMMENT-MINNESOTA: This is a story about a person who must have been made homeless. We should always be sympathetic towards homeless people even if they are homeless because of what they've done. And in the photograph, you can see there are 47 cats inside a car in which he was living. 

Or in which the cats were living because there was no space for a person to live with them. And if you look carefully you will see that they are all ginger tabby cats. There is no doubt in my mind that this person allowed his cats to breed to the point where the whole situation became completely unmanageable. He may have been evicted by his landlord. 

47 cats before rescue. Note: ginger tabbies all. Image in public domain.

Clearly, he must have been desperate to put 47 cats in a car to try and continue to care for them. And sadly, this photograph was taken on a day when the temperature outside was 32°C (90°F). The temperature inside the car would have been higher.

And this is why he apparently sought help because the cats were rescued. The local Humane Society spokesperson said: "Unfortunately, with the heat yesterday he recognised that it was above and beyond what he was capable of at this time. And he let us help them out."

We are told that he had previously given up 14 other cats that had been living in the car. Does that mean that there were 61 cats living in that car at one time!?

Fortunately, the cats were in reasonable health implying that they weren't in the car for very long. They will be sterilised and made available for adoption.

This is obviously a sad story both for the cats and the person to be in such a difficult predicament. The good point is that he sought help. If all cat orders sought help many more cats in hoarding situations would be saved from a premature death due to neglect; neglect through starvation or ill-health.

The man deserves credit for that. It is an admission to himself that he has failed. Not many hoarders have the courage to admit to themselves or the necessary enlightenment and awareness to realise that they are in trouble and need help. This is because many cat hoarders have borderline health problems.

Secondly, this man must really love cats. He wants to help cats. He failed because he allowed them to breed and in doing so, he achieved the opposite almost to what he desired because he has made their lives very difficult and jeopardised their health.

I would suggest that he requested help because he realised that he was harming his cats. This is indicative of a person who has his heart in the right place.

Chief Executive of Cat Protection quits over 18 cats at colleague's home

NEWS AND COMMENT: Charles Darley was the chief executive of Cat Protection for 3 months. This is Britain's largest cat charity. It is based around cat fostering. The Times reports that he has quit his role because he does not think that Linda Upson, chairwoman of the trustees of the charity, can defend having so many cats in her home on welfare grounds.

Linda Upson and one of her cats. Photo: Daily Mail.

Upson has 18 cats in her three-bedroom home; 6 are foster cats. The story prompted me to immediately check on the rules that Cats Protection impose upon their fosterers. I know that they have quite strict rules. One of them is to separate the foster cat from any other cats in the home. This is a permanent state of affairs. And on their website, they refer to one cat being fostered. I guess they allow you to have more than one cat especially when there is a litter of kittens to take care of.

That said, Upson was apparently complying with the rules. It's reported that she had undergone regular training and was aware of the requirements for cats in her care. A spokesperson for the charity said that all the cats were happy and healthy and that, "We found the six foster cats in her care were kept in a separate, clean and well-kept area of her house away from her pet cats."

UPDATE Jan 25, 2022 (4 days after I posted): Upson has resigned. This is part of her statement:

"I have today stepped down from my role as Cats Protection’s Chair of Trustees and my role as a Trustee on the Board because I passionately support Cats Protection and do not wish recent news coverage to detract from the charity’s vital work helping cats in need. For the past 20 years I have dedicated my time to cat welfare through my un-paid, voluntary role, leading a volunteer-run branch and serving on the charity’s Advisory Council before joining the Board of Trustees in 2012 and becoming Chair in 2017...."

She said the following about her own cats:

"My cats are aged between nine and 19 years old. I believe they are happy and healthy as each has their own feeding bowl, litter tray and other resources. They are all fully vaccinated and regularly taken for veterinary consultations. I also have no foster cats at this time."

However, Darley, who was three months into a 12-month contract as interim chief executive told The Guardian newspaper: "To have a chair that apparently isn't adhering to best practice is very damaging to the charity, and disastrous for staff morale.

Charles Darley and young black cat. Photo: Mail Online.

I'm a little confused because on the one hand the charity is saying that she complied with the rules and on the other hand the former chief executive stated that she was not complying with best practice. Perhaps this is a grey area. It's about the quantity of cats in her care.

Upson clearly had six foster cats and therefore 12 of her own cats. To have 18 cats in a three-bedroom home is pretty close to cat hoarding. Obviously, they were kept in good conditions so we're not talking about a typical cat hoarding environment, far from it. But it must be a handful to properly care for 18 cats in a three-bedroom home. It's very hard to keep the home completely free of cat odours for example.

Jackson Galaxy, the well-known American cat behaviourist, television presenter and author, is adamant that cat caregivers should have one cat litter tray for each cat in your care; plus, one more. On this basis Upson should have 19 cat litter trays in her home. That was seen to be impractical.

My personal feeling is that the former chief executive is correct. Even if she was complying technically with the rules and regulations of Cat Protection, she was not following best practice as there are too many cats in her home. You have to think about other things than keeping the place clean. What about the territorial demands of domestic cats?

RELATED: Domestic cat territory – home ranges vary widely.

Cats are very sensitive to the amount of territory they have. They are adaptable. However, with 18 cats in a three-bedroom home you are compressing their home range to a tiny fraction of what they naturally desire. Each cat within her home will have a home range of perhaps 5 yd². Given free-reign a domestic cat will roam over 4 acres to 50 acres or more. Male cats need more home range territory than female cats.

Compressing a large number of cats into a relatively small space is going to, at least potentially, cause stresses which can lead to health problems such as cystitis. Most of us realise that now. And of course, it is harder to keep the cats healthy because the potential for a contagious disease to spread is much higher under these circumstances than if there is one or two cats in the home. This is what he means by failing to follow best practice.

RELATED: 14 links between stress in domestic cats and health implications.

I have quite strong feelings about people keeping large numbers of cat in the home. It doesn't have to be that way. It is, at the end of the day, self-indulgent. I'm sure that people do it for themselves. They might have a hoarding mentality. They satisfy themselves because they like the large number. 

The point I'm trying to get at is that they don't do this in the interests of cat welfare generally but to satisfy a need within themselves. If Upson was generally concerned about cat welfare, she would have one or two cats of her own and then the six foster cats in a separate part of a home. But she has 12 cats of her own as well.

Apparently, according to the Daily Mail website online, staff at the charity were concerned about the number of cats but she was cleared to stay in the job. And also, the charity had previously done research on the subject of cats in cramped housing.

Mail Online reports that Linda Upson "left other staff despairing". They were concerned about how the charity might be seen by others and they were nervous about her being the spokesperson. Upson did not think that it was a problem when she was confronted by others about it.

Cats Protection agree with me that the kind of arrangements at Upson's home can cause animals considerable stress.

The charity's guidelines advise that cats must have "enough space so that they can get away from one another if they want to". Staff at the charity cannot defend Upson's behaviour.

Update: Sponsors of the charity may seek to activate clauses in their contracts allowing them to terminate their sponsorship due to “public embarrassment”. They've been urged to stick with the contract and not walk away from assisting the charity.

Here is a Cats Protection video on cat fostering:

Note: This is a video from another website which is embedded here. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

Are 13 cats too many for a two-bedroom bungalow?

NEWS AND COMMENT: There is a discussion on news media as to whether 13 cats in a two-bed bungalow is too many in terms of cat welfare. And the answer, really, is simple. It depends upon the person. It is just about possible to manage 13 cats and keep the place hygienic and the cats healthy.

This 13 cat too many for a two-bedroom bungalow? Carole Walker has 13. Image: ITV.

There is however, one hidden, potentially large negative: stress. Domestic cats are adaptable. But their natural home range may be 4 acres plus. It could be much larger. If you compress 13 cat into a two-bed bungalow, they're going to have a few square yards each in terms of home range and they are going to be overlapping home ranges. In fact, they have no home range of their own. It's all shared. This is liable to cause stress. Stress can come out in health problems.

You're liable to get some fighting so the basic starting point is not a good one. Arguably it is self-indulgent. But you can't automatically criticise people who keep 13 cats in one relatively small home because they might be excellent at their job and the cats might be able to adapt sufficiently and be fairly calm and content.

The problem is that 90% of the time it is not going to work out. In fact, it will work out badly. And this argument is rumbling around Carole Walker from Preston who has been on television, on ITV, when she was a host of Philip Schofield and Rochelle Humes. She was discussing how many cats are too many for one owner.

She claims, as she would, that she has the time and money to deal with the management of her cats, properly. In contrast, This Morning's vet Dr. Scott Miller said that 13 was too many under one roof. His argument is that felines are essentially solitary creatures and don't really appreciate living together with so many other cat companions.

And viewers of the television programme were divided. Some say that Carol does a good job looking after the cats and they appear to be happy. While others disagree and say that it is just too many.

Carole said:

"I've got a reasonable size two-bedroom, two-reception room bungalow, I've got an outside… area where they've got numerous climbers, they've got free access to that in the day. There's at least two or three beds throughout the house per cat, I've got the time and the finances to look after them."

Thirteen is her limit, however. She rightly says that she wants to make sure that she dies before her last cat! And she says that if they don't live to the age of 16, she considers it a failure on her behalf.

She said that there is the occasional "odd spat". But she argues that even if you have two cats in the home they can fight.

RELATED (note: Carol Walker is not a classic cat hoarder in my view): Cat hoarding: a spectrum of causes, reasons and personality types.

She said that they helped her a lot during the Covid lockdowns. The charity Cats Protection would argue that it is too many. They have a problem themselves with their chief executive resigning just three months into a 12-month contract because Linda Upson, the chairman of the charity has 18 cats in her three-bedroom house. Once again, she would claim that she looks after them properly and that they are content.

I have a close neighbour who has 10 cats. In my honest opinion she does not look after them properly. She has 10 cats because she wants ten cats. She is a natural hoarder of objects. She is not really considering the health and welfare of the animals in her charge. 

The home is smelly and the cats are confined to her home. They are full-time indoor cats. I feel very sorry for the cats. I almost feel like calling the RSPCA but that would cause a huge rift in neighbourly harmony. I keep quiet. 

It is the usual smell of ammonia from urine deposited around the home which emanates from the windows when they are open. She keeps the windows closed for that reason. How they can live in this background acrid smell 24/7 is beyond me. 

And how does an atmosphere saturated with ammonia gas affect the health of cats? That is a question which needs to be raised and hardly ever is.

However, Carol Walker, we are told, keeps her home clean and nice. This can happen but it is unusual in a home where there are more than 10 cats. Just on one small point: you've got to have 14 litter trays if you got 13 cats according to Jackson Galaxy, the well-known American cat behaviourist and television presenter. Where do you put them? The smell?

RELATED: Cat hoarding – full discussion.

Having 13 cats does not automatically mean that you are a cat hoarder. It might mean that, but it might not. It depends upon the mentality of the person. Carol Walker does not look like a cat hoarder to me. Cat hoarding is a mental illness. But having 13 cats is drifting into that classification in my view. It shows a lack of self-control and it indicates that the person is more focused on themselves and what pleases themselves as opposed to what is best for the cats. Arguably it is a selfish attitude.

Novel idea: cat faeces everywhere to deter burglars!

NEWS AND COMMENT: At her trial, this woman, a cat hoarder, stated that she kept her home in a complete mess with cat faeces everywhere including on armrests because she wanted to deter burglars.

Margaret Fakesch. Photo: Katie Pugh.

She wanted her home to be as smelly as possible to keep burglars at bay. I quite like that as an argument although it is complete fiction. She was very disagreeable at her trial and kept interrupting the clerk and the prosecution lawyer, it's reported (Daily Express).

She kept 12 cats at her filthy home. She refused to take the advice of veterinarians and didn't trust them. She thought she could heal her cats by placing her hands on them. Or she used homeopathic medicine. Some cats were ill with the usual upper respiratory infections.

Margaret Fakesch, 60, has been banned indefinitely from owning and looking after any animals and was fined £262. The RSPCA brought the prosecution. Officers found the home in the usual condition that investigators find the homes of cat hoarders, namely in a pitifully disgusting state with so much cat faeces on the floor that it was impossible to walk around the home. She lives in Hull, UK by the way.

RSPCA officers had attended the home earlier and offered advice to improve the situation. She barely responded. We are told that she made a small space among the clutter to allow her to walk down the corridor. When they revisited almost nothing had changed. She told RSPCA officers that she wanted her home to smell as bad as it could to deter anyone might break in to try and burgle her.

It's reported that a pile of used litter trays were found in stagnant water in the bathroom and a number of soiled adult nappies were littered around the house. It's just unbelievable. Sadly, we've heard it all before with cat hoarders.

This is the desperate last argument of a woman who I simply lost control and is trying to wriggle out of her responsibilities as a cat caregiver. I feel sorry for her because it's a mental health issue. She can't cope but she shouldn't be harming cats. If she can't care for cats properly she shouldn't be doing it. And to take such an offhand attitude towards veterinary advice is unforgivable when the cats suffer as a consequence.

I would expect her to ignore the court order banning her from keeping animals and to go back to her old ways. I would expect the RSPCA to have to visit her again in the future and the cycle will continue. The report does not tell us what happened to the animals. I presume that they were taken from her and rehomed via a animal rescue organisation. Let's hope so. But what caught my eye was the novel and ridiculous argument about deterring burglars.

Doctor faced 31 counts of animal cruelty and one count of child endangerment

NEWS AND COMMENT-VACAVILLE, CALIFORNIA: A qualified doctor (for humans) was facing 21 counts of animal cruelty and one count of child endangerment. However, she has not been charged by the Yolo County District Attorney Office. It is an interesting case because the public does not generally associate doctors (I believe that she is in general practice) and what appears to be animal hoarding resulting in neglect, negligence and abuse. I feel sorry for her. There but for the grace of God go I is what I think when I read these sorts of stories. It's quite easy to get into the situation where you can no longer cope, where you are vulnerable and sinking slightly or greatly.

I suspect that she has not been charged because it wouldn't be helpful. She needs help rather than punishment. I am sure that is the reason why the District Attorney decided not to prosecute. It's a shame in some ways because you end up with animals that suffer and in a strict sense there should be some punishment for that. Her child also suffered it seems. I have to make it clear that these are allegations at the moment because I don't know anything about it other than what is reported on the news media online. Sometimes they can be imprecise and inaccurate.

I had some concerns about publishing a photograph of the woman but I think I have to because her details are spelled-out and therefore it is not difficult to find a photograph on the Internet. She looks entirely normal and pretty happy in the photograph. It's a great shame. There is an argument that cat and animal hoarders should be counselled and treated rather than punished because ultimately it comes down to mental health which is often beyond the control of the person involved.

Keeping deceased cats and kittens in freezers is commonplace for cat hoarders. I don't think there's anything malicious about this behaviour. I think it is probably more to do with wanting to keep the animal close to the person rather than buried or cremated at which point they have conclusively lost the animal.

Her son was removed from her home because the conditions therein were dirty and unsafe. She is no longer seeing patients but she is qualified to do so. Her name is Dr. Rebecca Darsey. Her biography is still out on the Internet. The police found six dead kittens in her freezer. They also found 24 adult cats, six of which were deceased, five dogs and eight exotic birds at her home. 

We are told that her home was a mess which goes with the territory of being an animal hoarder and out-of-control. Her son was unable to sleep in his room because it was used to house animals.

Sadly, Dr. Rebecca Darsey was self-medicating for anxiety and depression. She was taking prednisone, Effexor and Maxalt. The last drug is used for the treatment of migraine headaches. Effexor is an antidepressant of the serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor class. It can also be used for chronic pain. And it is used to treat generalised anxiety disorder, panic disorder and social phobia. It seems that she didn't have her own doctor.

Her medical license is valid. News media reached out to the medical board for comment without success at the time of the report. The doctor's medical license expires at the end of 2021.

Cat hoarder was rescuing cats from cat hoarders in Florida

NEWS AND VIEWS - FLORIDA, USA: This is a sad story because Michelline Toulouse was an animal rescuer worker volunteer. And now she's been charged with animal cruelty (9 counts) and theft. She had more than 50 cats at her apartment in very poor conditions. Previously she had allegedly stolen $300 from the rescue organisation she worked for: Saving Sage Animal Rescue. She was caught on surveillance cameras.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

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She was sacked for the theft. A colleague visited her home to check on her and discovered the filth and 50+ cats. They were malnourished and 10 were dead. The scene was the usual cat hoarder scenario: mess, urine, faeces and the stench of ammonia. Some of the cats were living in the walls.

Michelline Toulouse. Video screenshot.

It transpired that Toulouse had been to cat hoarding houses to rescue cats! It is very strange that a cat hoarder was rescuing cats from cat hoarders. She had her own rescue called Love is Feral. She was involved in trapping, rehabilitating and rehoming homeless cats in Florida. That was her front, her image.

Toulouse was saving cats during part of her day and allegedly killing them during the remaining part through neglect and hoarding.

Cat hoarder was rescuing cats from cat hoarders in Florida. Screenshot.

Her boyfriend also faces charges. Cat hoarding is a mental health issue. It has been called a specific mental health issue but it is an extension to the hoarding of inanimate objects. Hoarders don't have the capacity to make a decision about divesting themselves of the objects they hoard so they never release them. It is about risk aversion and the inability to make decisions.

P.S. I am unsure but I think the rescue is named after Sage the cat who was brutally killed and the perpetrator never found. 

Man allegedly steals cats from street and hoards them. Police and RSPCA disinterested.

NEWS AND VIEWS: This is a disturbing story from Gainsborough, UK, which is in the Midlands. The locals living in the area allege that an unnamed man (update: he calls himself Ian Catmando and he is 56 years old) steals cats that happen to be in the street, puts them into a trolley and takes them home. His home appears to be in very poor condition, surrounded by a chicken wire and barbed wire fence with cat poop in the garden and apparently fleas all over the windows on the inside of the home. 

Man with cat on lead. This is the man. To be frank he looks and sounds as if he is bonkers. Image: Mirror.co.uk.

That's the picture which has been painted, which translates to one man stealing someone else's cat and then hoarding them. He claims that he is training cats to be therapy cats! On one occasion a photo was taken of him with four young cats all harnessed together outside the home. It looks bizarre and it is bizarre.

This is what it looks like inside this man's home. We don't know who provided the photo:

Man allegedly steals cats from street and hoards them. Police and RSPCA disinterested. Inside his home. Photo: ?

Protests have been mounted by locals:

Protestors demand that the cats be released. Photo: Michelle Page.

What is most bizarre and troubling, however, is that citizens have reported the matter to the RSPCA and the police and they appear to be disinterested. On the face of it, on the reports that I have read, this is a straight case of theft (Theft Act) combined with potential animal welfare issues which could be animal abuse or animal cruelty under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. This is alleged criminal behaviour.

Man steals cats from street and hoards them. Police and RSPCA allegedly disinterested. Picture: The Mirror.

We are looking at potentially more than one crime here so why is the RSPCA and the police apparently disinterested? The neighbours say that it has been going on for about four years (but see below)! Apparently, there are up to 50 cats or more inside the home (he claims he has 87). The problem has been highlighted by Michelle Page of Page's Pet Rescue. Michelle says that what she has seen is horrendous. She has also said that the alleged thief and cat hoarder has been known to walk to the village of Blyton, over 5 miles away with a trolley full of cats!

She said:

"I could see one of the cats looked like it had a big abscess and called the RSPCA but nothing has been done. He tells people the cats have cat flu and FIV."

Apparently, this bizarre behavior has been going on for about 18 months. Melanie Barker of Gainsborough Feral Rescue has spoken to the man who said that the RSPCA gave him the cats because they couldn't be rehomed as they had cat flu. Comment: that sounds highly unlikely, in fact ridiculous, and I cannot see how it can be true.

Update Sept 14th 2021: 12 cats were released from the house and one died. They were in a very poor state with the usual neglect health issues such as fleas and URIs. The protest continues as there are many more cats to be released for medical treatment and ultimately rehoming.

Update Sept 17th: Here's Ian who says "I’m a professional cat carer and have been since 1992". He walks up to 15 cats at a time in leads!

Ian. Photo: Metro.co.uk.

Melanie Barker said that she has contacted the police, Environmental Health and the RSPCA. Concerned people are waiting for action. Come on RSPCA pull your digit out.

Source: Mirror.co.uk

Cats in cat hoarding environments breath in ammonia fumes

This is a topic which is rarely if ever discussed. In the homes of cat hoarders, you invariably find that there is a strong smell of ammonia. This is because of the high concentrations of ammonia in cat urine, higher than that in human urine. And if the area in which they live is very confined like a campervan, the cats within it are breathing in high levels of ammonia for a very long time. This adds to the potential for ill-health. These sorts of levels of ammonia can harm health profoundly.

Many cats in truck looking at camera. There were 43 cats inside this U-Haul truck. Image in public domain. These are not the cats in the story.

We are used to reading about cats being rescued from a hoarding environment suffering from upper respiratory tract infections, secondary bacterial infections (in the eyes particularly), fleas, worms, ringworm, anorexia, and starvation. But we don't hear about this background health issue which pervades the atmosphere namely the gas of ammonia.

And ironically, it is the hoarders who also inhale this gas, day in and day out. It must do them harm as well. I was reminded of this problem because of a story emanating from Rhode Island's Providence Animal Control. They rescued 18 cats in an abandoned camper. (Newsweek report) They described it as the worst case of animal hoarding that they had seen.

They said that the ammonia levels inside the camper was so high that they'd make a person going into it ill for days. I suspect that they wore masks and hazmat suits. But when I think about that I think about the cats. How long were they in that campervan breathing in this foetid ammonia?

Of course, all the cats were flea-ridden, filled with worms, emaciated and they had ringworm as well. These sorts of cat hoarding cases start within the home and sometimes the person loses their home and lives in a camper and takes their cats with them. And sometimes they use a camper as extra space to hoard more cats.

The case also brings to mind another issue about cat hoarding. What causes it? You will find that it is agreed by the experts that cat hoarding is a mental illness. My personal viewpoint is that a person who hoards any object can also hoard cats because they seem to treat cats as 'objects' which is why they neglect them.

But the reasons why people hoard cats are complex. Once again, in my view, the starting point is insecurity. It is linked to obsessive-compulsive disorders which is also due to a feeling of insecurity and the need to control things. But people hoard objects because they think they might need them. They are playing safe. They keep them just in case. And if the basic mentality is to play safe because they are risk-averse, this points to insecurities. These people are insecure, anxious and worried. They collect these items around them to help them feel more secure. But, as mentioned, there are other issues such as depression and perhaps on occasions delusional thinking.

Associated: Cat hoarder admits defeat and seeks help which is rare.

The last point is evident because very often they say they love cats but they neglect them so badly that they harm and kill them. They don't acknowledge this deficiency in their thinking. They end up putting their dead cats in freezers. This is an extension of the hoarding process. They can't even bury them or cremate them. They have to keep the bodies whole in their home. There is no question it is a form of madness.

Associated: Cat hoarder and his 16 cats sue the local authority for compensation

Cat hoarders do their best to hide what they're doing and therefore they are cognisant of what they are doing. This is one peculiarity of their mental health. They don't recognise that they are killing their cats through neglect but they do recognise that they might upset the neighbours if they found out what they were doing.

And this brings me to the last point. When they are found out (due to the foul smell of ammonia leaking out of their home) and the cats rescued, the question is how do you deal with the person. Do you punish them or do you treat them with drugs and counselling? The answer is that you should do both. However, the more important part of the process is to work on their mental health issues to prevent them doing the same thing again. Often cat hoarders return to their bad habits. It's a deeply ingrained mental problem which perhaps can't be shifted even with the best treatments.

Pathetic slap on the wrist for Ryan Ross for gross cat abuses

OPINION AND NEWS: I have just read that this Oak Creek man, Ryan Ross, has been ordered to pay a total of $100 in fines for what I consider to be a massive abuse of domestic cats. The fine is poultry, pathetic and insulting to the general public. The judge should be assessed for his suitability to the task.

Ryan Ross. Image: Fox 6.

Ross was charged in 2019 when it was discovered that 117 cats were 'living' in a home in which he used to live. More than half of them had to be euthanized. Obviously, there were a very large number of very sick cats due to his acute neglect. In specific numbers, the rescuers of the cats decided that 67 of them had to be euthanised because they were in such a state that it was not possible to treat them and rehome them.

Briefly, Ross began taking in unowned cats in 2017 without ensuring that they were sterilised and therefore rapidly became overrun and couldn't cope. He eventually left the home leaving the cats there and a neighbour said that they hadn't seen anybody at the home for at least two months which prompted the investigation. You can imagine what the home was like, the usual piles of faeces and rubbish et cetera.

The prosecutors said that there was no food or water for the animals. The company supplying the water said that water had not been used at that property since early May 2019. He never took the cats to a vet and he admitted that he couldn't cope. The usual horrendous ammonia smell emanated from the property. There were cats at windows. It was a classic case of cat hoarding, neglect, inadequacy, irresponsibility and ultimately cat cruelty and death. It appears that some cats starved to death, a very painful process.

He was charged with four counts of animal mistreatment and his maximum punishment could have been six years in prison according to my online research. I'm not sure how they decided those four counts of animal punishment. I would have thought that it could have been 67 counts of animal mistreatment because 67 cats were euthanised because they were beyond hope of treatment. It seems to me that the whole process has been dealt with poorly and not seriously enough by the authorities. It's a classic case of "it's only cats" meaning that the animals had an incredibly low value to the prosecuting authorities and the judge.

There is no possibility of an improvement in the animal-to-human relationship if people value animals this poorly.

It's always the smell that exposes homes where there are too many cats

Pretty well every time that a person is exposed for having too many cats it is because a foul odour emanates from their home and a neighbour picks it up and complains to the authorities. It's about the person who owns a lot of cats being unable to manage. And the smell is of urine and perhaps faeces. It is an ammonia smell (urine). Which means that some of the cats are urinating inappropriately and perhaps defecating inappropriately as well. Or, it means that the person in charge is not cleaning out the litter trays properly. Both of these things are happening simultaneously. For the cats they are urinating appropriately by the way. Let's get that straight.

What it looks like in a home with too many cats. Chaos and massive smells. Singapore cat hoarder seeks help. Photo: Instagram page of the rescue who is helping her: Cats of Anchor Vale.

It is likely to be the former because if you have 20 cats in a home there are going to be stresses between the cats leading to inappropriate elimination. It will also potentially lead to spraying to mark territory which still happens even when cats are sterilised. When cats are boxed together like this in a very small space, they cannot enjoy the normal amount of space that domestic cats require which in my estimation is going to be a number of acres. 

Of course, domestic cats are adaptable and they can get used to living with much smaller territories (home ranges as they are called) but instinctively, given the freedom to enjoy a natural home range it would be much larger than can be provided inside a home with many other cats. This results in stresses among some cats.

The foul smell that emanates from these homes which is picked up by neighbours is waste product produced by the cats lying around the home which the person is unable to cope with. It is a carelessness in adopting too many cats combined with that same carelessness in being unable to manage the cats to the point where there is no smell in the home. Can you imagine that? I home in which there are 15 cats, let's say, and no smell. Is it possible to achieve that? It is and it has been achieved.

On December 23, 2019 I wrote about a man who has 15 cats and 22 litter boxes. His home smells perfectly! His name is Peter Cohen and he lives in a beautiful Californian home.

If you read the article, the first point that you will notice right away is that he has 22 litter boxes and 15 cats. This is in line with Jackson Galaxy's advice that there should be more litter boxes than cats. And Cohen puts litter boxes in closets i.e. an enclosed space and critically, because he is a builder and knows how to do this, he creates a negative air pressure inside the litter box closets by running a ventilation fan around the clock which sucks the air from the spaces to the exterior.

Finally, I presume that the air sucked out is pushed up through the roof because there'd be no point in pushing smelly air left and right of the house into neighbour's properties.

So, that's how you do it. And, you know what, the sort of systems that Mr Cohen has set up are going to prove impossible for the typical owner of many cats. Therefore, I have to conclude that if you have 15 or 20 cats living full-time inside a typical home it's going to be impossible to keep the smell down unless you have a huge amount of energy, time, commitment, and intelligence and building skills. If I'm correct in that assessment, it tells us that there must be an upper limit in the number of cats that a person can reasonably manage when they are confined to the home.

And here is the clincher: they have to be confined to the home. If they are allowed to wander around outside of the home the neighbours will complain anyway. Cat hoarders always confine their cats to the home. And they don't bother to build an enclosure in the garden because I guess that would also expose their activities to neighbours. They try and keep things secret, away from the prying eyes of neighbours. This of course exacerbates the problem making it impossible to stop massive odours building up.

And they have to open the window sometimes and in doing this the odour escapes. Because the odour is so pungent even small amounts of this air gets into neighbours' properties. It just depends how tolerant the neighbours are as to whether they complain or accept it.

I am therefore drawn to the only sensible conclusion which is that local authorities must have bylaws restricting the number of cats that a person can own to around five. This, I think, is a reasonable number which is manageable. And this rule will apply to any country anywhere. Although most of the news about cat hoarding comes from America it does not mean that cat orders only live in America, it happens anywhere. It's just that most cat news comes from America because they love their cats which, by the way, makes it very strange that they declaw them, an act which is totally against love between species.

Mother who treated her daughter as a cat

The child, Datse, who acted like a cat. Photo: Ministry of the Interior.

This is a story from Russia, specifically a town 80 miles north of Moscow called Taldom. A girl, Datse, aged six was living with an adult man and woman. It is believed that the woman is the child's mother. The mother appears to be obsessed with neo-Nazi ideology. There are pictures of her performing the Nazi salute. All three lived in a disgusting and filthy apartment with 19 domestic cats.

 Mother who treated her daughter as a cat. Photo: East2West

The child apparently moved around the apartment on all fours, responded to the call "kitty kitty" and ate cat food. She has an older sister aged 12 who can't remember going to school. She had difficulty walking and doesn't know how to speak properly.

The girl looks as if she is about three years old, half her real age. It appears that the police stumbled upon this disastrous scene when they spotted what they believed was a suspicious man. When the man saw the police he tried to hide from them and entered a house located in Saltykov-Shchedrin Street. The police followed him into the house where they discovered the distressing scene.

 Mother who treated her daughter as a cat. Photo: Ministry of Internal Affairs

The man apparently was born in 1955 and the woman was born in 1986. Both girls were taken to hospital for health checks. The older girl has been taken into care. When the younger girl was found she was naked and emaciated. 

Comment: the story is not as extraordinary as it seems. Every now and then these sorts of bizarre stories pop-up of families allowing themselves to generate into chaos. They give up. They totally lose any attempt to maintain standards. The problem is that the vulnerable members of the family, the children and no doubt the cats as well, are the ones who suffer. I hope the cats are rehomed but I would be very surprised that they are or have been. There should be criminal prosecutions for child neglect but as this is Russia I'd doubt it will happen.

Although we should be slow to criticise. We don't know the history of backstory. Why did it happen? There must be an underlying reason. Perhaps the mother's parents indoctrinated her into Nazi obssessiveness and traumatised her.

This is also a case of cat hoarding but that is a secondary issue sadly.

Source: The Sun. There are no pictures of the child except for the pixelated one on this page which I presume was taken after she was rescued from her hell.

Kiwi Cat Hoarder Fails in Bid to Overturn Ban on Keeping Cats

Fifty-one-year-old Tatyana Kondratyeva (she must be of Russian extraction) was convicted on animal cruelty charges and banned from owning animals for ten years. The reason she was convicted is because she hoarded 50 cats in appalling conditions. There were 38 dead cats in freezers etc.! We know these sorts of cases and this appears to be clear cut cat hoarding/cruelty.

Her appeal to New Zealand's Supreme Court (the highest court in the land) via a failed Appeal Court application, was based on the absurd claim that only 22 of the fifty cats in her "care" were suffering significant health problems! That is more than 50%. Come on Tatyana! Your application was flawed and doomed to fail from the outset. She has more money than sense.

It makes me wonder why someone with a bit of money was so negligently cruel to so many cats.

She also argued that New Zealand's prohibition orders lacked clear criteria. This was a technical point she was trying to use to her advantage but failed.

In any country there will be a very small proportion of cat owners who end up becoming cat hoarders and nearly all cat hoarders end up inadvertently being cruel to the cats in their charge. It is about neglect and a lack of moral bearings. They just don't get it. They don't understand that they are being cruel.

Often cat hoarders have mental issues but not always.

A Week in the Life of Wanderers' Rest Animal Shelter, Canastota NY

It has been one of those weeks at the Wanderers' Rest animal shelter. It probably isn't all that different from normal though.

Firstly, a lady saw someone throw a garbage bag from the window of a moving car. You can guess what was inside the back, can't you? Yes, you're right, the bag contained 12 kittens and cats, of which 2 had died.  The lady who watched this despicable act recovered the bag and found homes for 5 of the cats. She gave the remaining 5 to the shelter. We read quite a few stories about kittens and cats being thrown out of the window of moving cars. It is totally beyond my comprehension how anybody can do it. The people must be totally desensitised to any form of decent behaviour.

On the same day a woman who appears to be a serial cat hoarder received a visit from animal control who remove 15 cats from her home. The year before 20 cats were removed from her home.  Eight cats remained. No doubt something similar will transpire in another 12 months. The humane educator at the shelter says something that we probably already know, namely that cat hoarding is a mental illness so there is not much point being very critical of the cat hoarding lady. She needs treatment rather than punishment.

In the same week on July 18 a dog control officer discovered a cage in bushes outside his home. Inside the cage were 12 cats. Somebody appears to have abandoned the 12 cats in a rather peculiar way but in an equally abusive and callous way.

The week appears to have been a bit unusual due to the nature of the abandonments but I suspect not that unusual because the shelter housed almost 1000 cats over the past year and about 600 dogs. They are stretched to capacity and make the usual plea, “We need foster homes desperately".

Source story.

NZ: Law Allows Cat Hoarder to Remain Anonymous

This is an interesting story. It concerns an aspect of cat hoarding I have not covered before. A lady living in Invercargill, New Zealand was in breach of the city by-law by failing to care for a specified, limited number of cats. I don't know the restriction but perhaps we don't need to know because she kept at least 25 cats according to her neighbour because he saw them on the drive. That is too much for any standard house/apartment in a residential area.

The lady was also in breach of the NZ Health Act 1956 in creating a nuisance. She had been charged with keeping too many cats. At the initial stages of criminal proceedings she was allowed to keep her name confidential. I don't know what the law or protocol is in NZ which allows this but it must cover all criminal proceedings under certain proscribed circumstances.

Subsequently, a judge in the case, Michael Turner, ruled that the court could no longer justify suppressing her name. Her name is: Averil Maree Gardiner.

She appealed the decision but it was obviously a misplaced appeal because her name was, at that time, in the public domain and you can't put it back into the "anonymous box" once it is out. She withdrew her appeal.

I understand the driving force in going too far in cat rescue but a rescuer must know her limits. To fail to do so puts the person at risk of neighbour disputes and criminal charges. More important than both of these acute problems is that it ultimately hurts the cats because the rescuer can no longer cope, neglects cats and the cats suffer major health problems and worse.

The story.

Trespassing Cats: A Neighbourly Battle Of Biblical Proportions

Lady releases trapped cat

It happens everywhere especially, as far as I can tell, in the United States of America.  A neighbour likes cats and looks after lots of them. She can't help it. She just loves cats too much and can't stop herself from helping them.

Her next door neighbour either dislikes cats or is neutral about them.  His young boy is allergic to cats. His neighbour's cats wander into his yard. They urinate in his yard and occasionally defecate there as well. He puts up with it but after a while he decided to put down traps then take the cats that are trapped to the local rescue centre.

The cat loving neighbour finds out that she is missing some cats and then discovers what is happening so at 4 in the morning she sneaks out of her property onto her neighbour's property and releases the trapped cats. The person who trapped the cats figures out something is going on because he knows the cats were in the traps at one stage.

We have the makings of a war between neighbours which is something to be avoided at all costs.

Anyway the guy who set the traps sets up surveillance cameras to record what happens at 4 in the morning when his neighbour comes onto this property to release the cats he has trapped. He uses the video material to tell the police what has happened and she ends up facing what in America is called a “criminal trespass charge" for walking onto her neighbour's property.

Trespass is normally a tort meaning a civil wrong and not a crime. In addition, I do know what crime she has committed. Opening traps? Perhaps she damaged the traps.

This must be an American law.  Anyway she will probably end up with a criminal record and the guy who got her prosecuted will end up with an extremely angry neighbour who will carry on doing exactly the same thing as you did before.

No one's a winner, everyone's a loser.  The answer has to be a common sense answer which is that the lady who'd like to look after cats continues to do so but at the same time respects her neighbour's rights and wishes in order to keep the peace with her neighbour. I say that being a cat lover but even cat lovers need to respect other people's rights.

Being a cat lover does not trump everything: the behaviour of a cat lover has to fit in with society just like the behaviour of everybody else.

This is not a made up story but a real one. The lady who looked after the cat is Jean Kerdock-Locke and her neighbor is Ben Sanchez. The live in southeast Albuquerque, USA.